


You Can't Go Home Again

by unnaturalhistory



Category: Wolf 359 (Radio)
Genre: Blood and Injury, Eiffel needs a hug, Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Spoilers up to Desperate Times, honestly they all do
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-11
Updated: 2016-12-11
Packaged: 2018-09-07 18:55:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8812237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unnaturalhistory/pseuds/unnaturalhistory
Summary: After the revolution, Eiffel and Kepler have a little chat.(Or, an idea of what might have gone on at home in their absence.)





	

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to post this before Monday jossed it completely. Entirely the fault of the twitter groupchat - you know who you are.
> 
> Written quickly and edited loosely, any remaining mistakes are my own.

In the end, they pulled it off. Not without blood, not without loss, but at the end of it all the Urania was being prepped for a return trip to Earth, and Eiffel stood over a battered Colonel Kepler, checking the restraints holding him to the comms chair for the fifth time in ten minutes, just in case. The room was quiet, with Hera off integrating herself into the Urania’s systems, so it was a surprise when Kepler broke the silence with a laugh.

The sound made Eiffel jump, and he replied before he could stop himself. “What’s so funny? Because from where I’m standing, you don’t have much to laugh about.”

“I was just thinking about your little plan,” Kepler drawled. ‘You’ve got a hell of a surprise coming when you get back. I just wish I could be there to see it.”

“Big words from the guy tied to a chair,” Eiffel said, crossing his arms. “Lovelace and Hera’re already checking the Urania for booby traps, bud, sorry to burst your bubble.”

Kepler just laughed, again, which wasn’t doing wonders for Eiffel’s paranoia. “You misunderstand me, Officer Eiffel,” he said, voice twisting ironically over Eiffel’s name. “Take the ship, that’s no problem - you can even leave me in here to die, if you want.” Before Eiffel could protest he was on team ‘what’s wrong with handcuffs’, Kepler continued. “I’m _laughing_ because you won, and there’s still nothing left for you back there. You should’ve just let us kill you - as far as anyone back home cares, you’re already dead, anyway.”

 _Don’t engage,_ warned the voice in his head that sounded oddly like Minkowski. Unfortunately, Eiffel had a lot of practice ignoring that voice. “Yeah, we’d already figured that out, thanks for playing, though.”

“Did you ever even stop to think about what that might _mean_ , Eiffel?” Kepler asked. He was smiling, made even more ghoulish by the blood staining his teeth red. “Do you honestly think there’s anyone back there waiting for you?”

Eiffel ground his teeth, starting to wish he’d listened to the voice in his head. Unfortunately, Kepler was on a roll, seeming to relish every word.

“Hilbert had nobody left to begin with, Lovelace’s family’s mourned her and moved past it years ago. Minkowski’s husband has moved on with his life, and Hera’ll be decommissioned the moment you hit ground. And as for you? Kate didn’t even go to your funeral - why would she, for the idiot who kidnapped and deafened her daughter?”

Eiffel couldn’t help but reply to that one, half to himself. “Goddard’s paying for Anne, that’s all that ma--”

This time, Kepler starting laughing so hard it startled Eiffel. He nearly doubled over from the effort of it, even with the restraints holding him in place. “You-- you honestly thought--? Oh my god, that almost makes this gongshow of a day worth it.” He raised his head, and Eiffel found himself pinned by the Colonel’s gaze. Even bound, there was something terrifyingly hypnotic about those eyes. “You still don’t get it, do you? There was never any money.”

Eiffel felt the blood drain from his face. “You’re--”

“Lying? Why the hell would I lie? Goddard never paid them a cent - they don’t have any connection to you, not officially. As far as your family knows, you’re just a piece of shit who hurt the only person left in the world who cares about him. It wasn’t a surprise to anyone to hear you’d killed yourself in jail - hell, I bet some of them were happy. At least it showed you’d finally taken some responsibility for your actions.”

Eiffel couldn’t even move, let alone think of a response. He just felt… cold. Numb. The story made a sick kind of sense - too much sense, if he was honest with himself.

Kepler was laughing again. “Oh god, if you could just see the look on your--”

Eiffel never found out how Kepler would have finished that sentence, because that’s when his fist collided with the colonel’s jaw, and then his nose.

Kepler kept laughing, right up until the blow that finally shut him up. Gobbets of blood and spittle floated around his head like some grotesque parody of a halo when Eiffel finally pushed himself away from the man, arms shaking with exhaustion, or something like it.

“You’re lying,” he said, quietly. Even still as it was, Kepler’s face managed to mock him for his denial.

Finally, Eiffel wiped his bloody knuckles on his uniform and started for the door. As he reached out to open it, Hera’s voice came through the speaker.

“...Eiffel?” She sounded hesitant, maybe even a little scared. But she hadn’t tried to stop him.

Eiffel plastered on a smile as best he could before replying. “Hera, I thought you were busy with the Urania.”

“I wanted to delay a full download until we finished the diagnostic, make sure there’s no… funny business,” Hera replied. “But I’m fully integrated with the Urania’s systems, now. I could… take a look into his files, if you want. Find out if he was--”

“No,” Eiffel said, glancing back for a moment at the bloody shape in his chair. It didn’t move. “It’s-- it’s fine, Hera. Let’s go home.”


End file.
